Schloss Nymphenburg

Schloss Nymphenburg (more details) is a vast Wittelsbach palace and park complex in Munich. Completed in 1675, the palace was originally situated some distance from the city but today is wholly engulfed by it. I always wanted to post a gallery of it, and since I somewhat botched my first gallery with the Sony DSC-HX90 through overexposure, this was the perfect opportunity.

Due to the enormous size of the park, this gallery covers only the main building complexes in the eastern part (see the plan), with the great courtyard in the east and the great parterre in the west. All told that’s nearly a square kilometer and easily enough for one tour. I may someday post another gallery of the various sights in the rest of the park.

Photography Notes

This time I closed down aperture to f/8 – the highest f-stop for the tiny Sony DSC-HX90 – and raised shutter speed to 1/500–1000, as required. That did avoid overexposure in daylight and resulted in better colors. However, zooming in to individual pixels seems to reveal some additional noise. This may be from the very small aperture, equivalent to full-frame f/46.8 in terms of light intake. For my next tour I’ll try opening up again, compensating with even faster shutter speed.

Click on any image to enter a full-screen gallery view with Exif information and descriptions of each subject. Stated focal lengths are physical ones for the DSC-HX90, and must be multiplied by 5.85 to obtain the full-frame equivalents.

Approach & Surroundings

Naturally the palace sits at the end of an imposing approach, so we start with that. I added some pictures of notable buildings I found near the palace complex.

Approach

Approach (Back)

Townhouse

Townhouse

Hospice Chapel

Christkönig

Great Courtyard

At the end of the approach the semi-circular courtyard opens, surrounded by a city block’s worth of buildings and holding a sizable lake at its center.

Courtyard

Courtyard Monument

Courtyard NW

Courtyard NW Detail

Courtyard SW

Courtyard SE

Courtyard SE House

Courtyard SE House

Courtyard SE House

Courtyard NE House

Main Building

The main palace building sits at the center of the great courtyard, its outer front facing the courtyard and approach, and its inner front facing the great parterre that is the first part of the vast park.

Courtyard (Zoom)

Outer Front

Outer Front Detail

Outer Front Detail

Outer Front Detail

Inner Front

Inner Front Detail

Inner Front Lion

Great Parterre

The great parterre (gardening term) connects the palace complex with the rest of the park. Here I added some pictures of the notable waterfowl to be found in courtyard and park.

Park

Park (Back)

Park Gondola

Statue of Kronos

Statue of Zeus

Barnacle Goose

Canada Geese

Common Coot

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2 thoughts on “Schloss Nymphenburg”

Thanks for posting. It’s been a long time since I visited Nymphenburg, and I don’t recall there being any gondolas in the lake back then. Munich was such a fantastic place. I hope the “enlightened” policies of the current government don’t completely ruin it. Several times people on the street there asked me for directions. There must be something “Bayrisch” in my face, although I’ve always thought it was mostly English. Once we visited the Bürgerbräukeller, and I asked if I could see the hall where the putsch took place. The waitress told me they didn’t show that to tourists. However, eventually she came back and led me through the kitchen into the old hall, looking much as it must have looked then. Not many years after that the place was demolished.

I just looked up the old Bürgerbräukeller. I didn’t know it had been on the site of today’s Gasteig complex. Demolished in 1979, quite a long time ago! The gondola service must have been introduced later, it was already active when I came here some years ago.